Encaustic Art
Encaustic Painting : Painting with wax to create art
Since I discovered encaustic art in 2010 and started creating my own encaustic artwork from Spring 2011 I have found a wide and varied amount of information on the internet about the subject, the history of painting with wax, techniques, styles and artists who work in this medium.
This information is widely available so I won't fill this page with information you can easily find elsewhere. What I will say is that encaustic painting is created with wax, there are lots of techniques for working with the medium both hot and cold, and there are many different styles of encaustic art. Sometimes referred to as a craft, yet others may call it an art, my personal view it is a bit of both!
How I paint in hot wax
I am an Encaustic artist with a passion for painting in hot wax. I paint using wax which I melt using a collection of heat tools. These range from specialist encaustic irons and stylus heat tools, with various nibs and tips to a hot plate and craft heat gun, all of which go into the creatation my paintings in varying ways.
The wax I use is the encaustic coloured wax blocks supplied by encaustic.com which I paint onto encaustic gloss card. I have also experimented with other surfaces, including canvas board, watercolour paper and other materials however at the moment, I can achieve the results I am looking for in my paintings with this specialist gloss card.
Due to the nature of the medium the artwork needs to be handled with care, I give the paintings a very light polish when they are completed, this gives them a wonderful sheen and brings out the colours and texture more I feel. Most of the paintings on this site have not been varnished, I have occasionally sealed pictures with an acrylic sealer if they are made into greetings cards. Encaustic (wax) artwork should not exposed to heat sources or direct sunlight for long periods of time and if displaying behind glass it is recommended that the artwork should be mounted so as not to touch the glass.
Watch me painting
You can see how I create my artwork in encaustic wax in some video demonstrations Adrian and I have created of me painting using this wonderful medium, simply play the video embeded in this page or subscribe to my Art In Wax youtube channel.
Information online : history and modern day
From the wikipedia website we can find lots of information on the history of the art form that dates back to 100 - 300 AD.
Michael Bossom's website has a mile of information on modern day encaustic art, with details of the formulation of the waxes used to how to care for your wax artwork the website also has many links to other resources and artists. I am also a member of an international encaustic network and gallery encausticworld.com where many artists work can be viewed.
More Information
If you would like to find out more about me please visit my artist page and I would also invite you to look at some of the painting I have created in wax in the Art In Wax gallery and on our Exhibits page, which is a place online where we exhibit of both paintings and photography as a collection piece.